The Amp Hour · 6 Dec 2020 · 1h 08m · Episode 520
Hosts Chris Gammell and Dave Jones discuss a teardown of an aircraft transponder, revealing its use of a Microchip PIC microcontroller and specialized RF power transistors from Gigahertz Technology. They explore the engineering behind high-power RF components, including comb-line filters and PCB stackups, before shifting to the collapse of the Arecibo radio telescope and the impracticality of the Hyperloop. The conversation concludes with observations on current supply chain lead times for parts like the Raspberry Pi Compute Module and the trend of hardware requiring mandatory online registration.
makers and hobbyists
Other shows on the same ground, closest first.
Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams discuss the closure of Maker Media, a GPS hardware failure grounding flights, and a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ power management chip vulnerability. They also review community hacks including a vintage speech synthesizer, an SOIC test clip debug connector, and a mechanical drum machine, before analyzing the Takata airbag scandal.
Hosts Elliot Williams and Jenny List recap Hackaday Europe, detailing the logistical chaos of the SAO badge production, including customs delays and the heroic work of Voyer Antonich in programming PIC microcontrollers. They discuss a retrospective on the early 2000s capacitor plague, analyzing Asianometry’s theory that thermal design failures, rather than industrial espionage, caused the systemic component failures. The episode highlights several hardware hacks, including a thermal microscope using germanium lenses, inefficient but large-scale wireless power transfer experiments, and the use of PCB spring connectors in passive resistance boxes. Finally, they examine the trend of extreme miniaturization, featuring Mike Roller’s tiny PCB blinky and Texas Instruments’ new ultra-small microcontroller, while noting the potential for extracting rare earth elements from coal fly ash.
Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Dan Maloney review community projects including a tiny BJ microcontroller, a CRT transplant from a fish finder, and a water-based phased array sonar demo. They discuss the engineering challenges of sealing soil moisture sensors against corrosion and analyze how synthetic aperture radar satellites can inadvertently expose military radar sites. The episode also covers a Hot Wheels PC case mod, exam cheating scandals, and crowdsourced soldering war stories.
Hosts Elecia White and Christopher White discuss the intersection of science fiction and engineering inspiration, review Digilent's Analog Discovery 2 and Digital Discovery test equipment, and detail Christopher's experience building a QRP Labs Ultimate 3S ham radio kit for WSPR. They also cover Elecia's struggles with Ubuntu and the NVIDIA Jetson TX2, the choice of programming languages for embedded firmware, and Elecia's appearance on the Jennylyn Show.
Ron Sparks (AG5RS), a veteran electrical engineer and ham radio operator, discusses the convergence of the maker movement and amateur radio, highlighting projects like the South Texas Balloon Launch Team and the Pecan Pico. He details the technical challenges of building ultra-compact RF devices for high-altitude balloons and the importance of analog signals for digital tracking. Sparks also reflects on his career in safety management and troubleshooting, offering advice on navigating ageism in engineering and finding community in technical hobbies.
The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by The Amp Hour. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.